This Week's Playlist

To celebrate St David's Day last week, I have been listening to a lot of Welsh music this week, which you may notice in this week's playlist!


Super Furry Animals - Golden Retriever



The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

The video here is from Jools Holland's show, which is where I first heard these two. The guy reminds me of a cross between Johnny Depp and Jack White (visually).



The Shins - A Simple Song. Great if somewhat depressing video




Super Furry Animals - Hello Sunshine
Now that spring is upon us, this is particularly appropriate. If you're not familiar with the Super Furries, you might still recognise this song from (the best teen drama ever) The OC.





Lana del Rey - Million Dollar Man
My favourite LDR song so far, even if it sounds uncannily like the Spice Girls' Too Much (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). Presumably the man in question is Lana's daddy who funded her album.




Y Bandana - Siwgwr Candi Mel
This is a song by my favourite Welsh-language band. It's not their best song but sadly there isn't much of their music on YouTube. If you can, get your hands on a copy of Dal dy Drwyn/Can y Tan.



The Cribs - We Share the Same Skies

The Perfect Pick-Me-Up

Contrary to popular belief, life as a student can be difficult. Mountains of seemingly-never ending reading and now the dreaded exam period on the horizon. I can only count my blessings that I'm a second year, so there is no scramble to find a job just yet. It's times like this when I need a little retail therapy to cheer my soul. Sadly, not only am I on a student budget, but I also am confined to a campus uni where the nearest town doesn't even have an Urban Outfitters. Nonetheless, today I almost reached breaking point and so found myself rifling through the best that this Midland's town has to offer.

In the end I bought this - a snip at only £25 (plus student discount!) from New Look.

A clear Alexander McQueen rip-off that has been spotted on the likes of Rihanna, Emma Watson and burgeoning fashion icon Chloe Moretz (the McQueen version, obvs). I'll be taking a leaf out of Ri-Ri (barf)'s book by teaming it with a collar necklace. Or is that too Home and Away school girl? I'm also tempted to pick up a pair of brother creepers like the Bajan singer, but need to step away from my favourite This is England look so will have to resist the temptation.

This Week I Love...

Miss Selfridge, £3.75

These religious bracelets are everywhere at the moment. At the same time hideously tacky and brilliantly youthful, I feel both terribly blasphemous and childishly playful wearing mine. I don't know if it's because I spent a year living in Italy, but I am finding myself increasingly drawn to religious iconography (or 'tat' as some may view it). This bracelet makes me think of teenage summer days but also serves me up a helping of Catholic guilt; wearing it doesn't replace a Sunday in Mass.

Can someone please buy me the following...?

OK, so what with just about every designer under the sun bringing out a collection for a high street store (SUPER excited for the Jenny Packham range in Debenhams), we can now all get our hands on some up-market goodies without selling off our grandmothers. My favourite collection (and everybody else's too, judging by the lack of stock) has got to be Mary Katrantzou's for Topshop.

This dress is gloriously summery and seeing as the weather is heating up ( I saw a man in short and flip flops yesterday; that's right, shorts and FLIP FLOPS), there is no excuse not to buy it.

IF this sunny weather is not set to last - which, considering it's February, maybe it isn't -then I wish to spend the next few months in this Vivienne Westwood beauty. Hell, a girl can dream.

Patrick Wolf Reading 2011

Patrick Wolf was definitely one of my favourite acts at this year's Reading. I have only become a fan recently (yes, yes, I know, I am definitely a Johnny-come-lately to Patrick Wolf and will never be a true fan etc.) but I was desperate to get to see his set. Unfortunately for me, I missed the first half due as I was watching another band on the main stage with my brother who was more than reluctant to go and see "that NME twat" (his words, not mine).

Whilst it's unlikely that his view of the flamboyant Londoner remains the same, I was taken aback at what a great live act Mr. Wolf is. Never before has a video paled so much in comparison with the real thing and I urge anyone who is considering it, to go and see Patrick live. Not only is he an entertaining and engaging performer, but he has got a great band behind him, too. I am even considering picking up the saxophone (as in learning, not physically picking up the instrument) just to master the 'This City' solo!

Manhattan (Opening)

Is this the best opening to a movie, ever?! I wish I lived in Woody Allen's Manhattan...

Pulp- Do you remember the first time? (Live at Reading 2011)

It was a toss-up between this and the glorious Common People. In the end I went for Do You Remember the First Time? because it seemed to fit the crowd better. Whilst for the majority of the weekend I felt at times - at the age of 20 - like I had sneaked into the best school holiday ever, during Pulp's set, I was surrounded by people in their thirties. It seemed as though the majority of the crowd had seen the band before and were taking this as an opportunity to relive their teenage years.

What also struck me about the show was the energy on the stage, due mainly to (extraordinarily flexible!) frontman Jarvis Cocker. Rather than stand motionless on the stage like many of his peers (yes, Liam Gallagher, I'm looking at you), Jarvis refuses to grow old gracefully and during parts of the set you would see him writhing around on the amps in his tradmark dandy fashion. Surprisingly, it works. What I liked most about this show was that the band weren't taking this for granted - they were loving every minute of it, and so too did the fans.

My only criticism would be that they weren't headlining the Saturday night (although I know that this wasn't the case in Leeds). I love The Strokes as much as the next person but the incredible energy that Sheffield's finest built up was lost a little during the New Yorkers' set.

Right, I've spoken enough; get watching this masterclass in showmanship. I also recommend watching Common People, purely for the lovely speech Jarvis gives about it beforehand.

Elbow - One day like this (Reading 2011)

Elbow were definitely one of my favourite acts of the weekend. A major crowd-pleaser and One Day Like This is such a sing-a-long. The lyrics are so uplifting and really resonated with me for that weekend. Being part of a crowd whilst we all sang along to this was special and for this reason I would definitely recommend seeing them live. My brother, who is a massive music snob and has waxed lyrical in the past about how boring he finds Elbow, even enjoyed this one.

Reading 2011

I realised that whilst I haven't blogged for a while, I have actually been up to some blog-worthy stuff recently! Normally my summer is spent lounging on the sofa watching E4 alone at 2 in the afternoon whist slowly sinking into a state of depression, but this year I got my arse into gear (and had some ERASMUS grant left over) and so the self-hating sofa time was kept to a minimum. The highlight for me was definitely Reading festival.

This was the first festival that I'd ever been to (I know, at 20, this is embarrassing, particularly considering I was clearly one of the oldest there). I went with my brother who is a Reading-appropriate 17 years old and if you think that I am sad for doing that, believe me it gets worse, as on the Thursday morning the plan was that I was going to be going with my mother. This was due to my brother's admission the night before that he was going to spend the whole weekend with his friends and I was to be left alone in the tent. Luckily, we managed to sort things out and we turned out to have one of THE best weekends.

I am at the best of times a little uptight - more so when I have to spend the whole weekend looking after my little brother who doesn't know his elbow from his arse and has never cooked himself a piece of toast, never mind a bowl of pasta. So I was a little anxious as to what the weekend held in store. As it happened, it was brilliant. I discovered so many new bands as well as seeing some of my all time favourite acts, the best of which was definitely Pete Doherty (made better by the fact that the only people at his gig were the ones that really wanted to be there - Muse were playing on the main stage at the same time). I'm going to include a few videos (all nabbed off YouTube: I hate videoing gigs) of my favourites now.

Yes, yes, I know, I haven't blogged for months. A sign of a bad blogger is that all of their posts seem to be apologies for not updating their blog, so I guess that makes me a pretty bad blogger. What's more, I am now back at uni and have forgotten my camera, so I can't even do a lazy blog post of "The view from outside my window", "A picture of a trendy student". I will be going home next week though so I can hopefully find my camera and take some pictures for inspiration! I'm also going to Dublin to celebrate my friend's birthday next weekend so I will definitely find something to photograph there (providing that the floods stop - otherwise it will just be snaps of a grey and rainy Dub, I'm afraid).

Sorry I've not posted in a week, I've been in Rome (pictures and posts soon to follow). Looking through the pictures I took in Rome, it reminded me of the ones that I had taken last month on my birthday here in Turin. I rather stupidly had forgotton to take my keys out with me, so I was left hanging around outside my house from 5 in the morning. Rather than wake my flatmates, I decided to have a wander around the city in the early morning.

I loved how warm and inviting this shop looked whilst I was stuck outside.

Italians are patriotic.

If I could drive... I would be driving this car.

Hugh Grant for PM!

Not really...
Hugh Grant did a good job on Question Time, proving not only is he not a little airhead, but also that he has some morals and backbone. Occassionally he came across a tad smug and actor-y (see:the glasses) and let us not forget that the non-politican role on Question Time is always the easiest. However, he rightly teared into the panel, especially Jon Gaunt, who unfairly brought up Grant's past misdemeanours. He may not go down the Joanna Lumley route of actor-turned-protestor but who'd have thought that an apperance on QT would be Hugh Grant's wisest career choice of the last five years?

This week, Harry Potter himself Daniel Radcliffe came out and said that he had been sober for a year, deciding to give up drinking after beoming reliant on alcohol to enjoy himself. This reliance on alcohol is pretty common amongst people in his age group, but the reaction to Radcliffe's admission has not really been one of praise. Instead there have been many sneering commentators with lots of (generally older) people suggesting that he is a bit of a lightweight and boring, as though getting blindingly drunk every weekend is the done thing for teenagers and people in their twenties. Now I don't want to come across all Daily Mail; I think young people should go out, have a laugh, have a drink and have fun. If you can't do it when you are twenty, with no responsibilities and a student loan to waste, when can you? However, I don't like the attitude that this should be the done thing for twenty-somethings.


People seem to find Radcliffe's admission interesting because there have been no - or very few at least - pictures of him falling out of nightclubs drunk, nor has there been any knowledge of his drinking. I think it this lack of awareness that is surprising people. There seems to be a general consensus that, if it was so bad, why didn't we already know about it? But for Radcliffe, this isn't the point. It isn't that amount that he was drinking that was the problem, it was the reason for doing it - his belief that he couldn't have a good time without it.

There is a very strange attitude in this country towards drinking, especially towards those who don't drink, or who want to limit their drinking. In the past when I have cut down on smoking, I have had nothing but encouragement from friends. Yet when I have told them that I won't be drinking this evening, I have heard only complaints that I am "boring" and spoiling other people's fun. In fact, the minute I say that I'm not going to be getting off my face, it becomes my friends' personal mission to get me wankered. These are the same friends who see me puking my guts up the next day, the trips to the toilet the only breaks in my weekend under a duvet where a Smiths CD, a loaf of bread and a crushing sense of shame are my only company. Don't get me wrong, I do the same, encouraging people to come out when they don't want to, buying drinks for those who have only brought out a tenner (normally for the reason that they don't want to get to wasted). However, I think it's time that as a nation, we became more tolerant to those who don't want to drink, or who don't want to drink to the excess. Everyone is happy to lambast Amy Winehouse when she turns up drunk to a concert and get on their high horses. Yet when a young actor says that he has given up drinking in order to regain complete control of his life, he is mocked. I think people see it as a criticism of themselves and their own drinking when someone says that they wish to give up. This is not the case here. Daniel Radcliffe is just saying that drinking doesn't do it for him. For that, he should be applauded.

My song of the week

Patrick Wolf - House

I know that Patrick Wolf has been knocking around for ages but typical me, the minute he starts getting mainstream is when I get interested. However, there is a reason why he is getting more acclaim at the minute - his new album is incredible. This is his fourth album and whilst I've found his previous stuff a little inaccessible and left-field for my tastes, the songs on this album are instantly catchy. The song I'm listening to most is (for the moment) House. It might be because I am about to leave a house, a city and a country that I have absolutely loved but I am finding it particularly poignant and heart-wrenching. If anyone is in the same position as me I recommend listening to This City after - it's so upbeat and feel-good that there is no chance of you wanting to curl under your duvet and cry about the past after listening to it (which is obviously something that I never do - ahem).

For the past few months, I have been friends with a girl who's style is somewhat similar to mine in the sense that we both follow fashion and tend to opt for a kind of Urban Outfitters/Alexa Chung-style vibe (I know, what twenty year old British girl doesn't?). I'll admit, she probably keeps a closer eye on it than me, and could identify a brand at twelve paces. However, recently she's become a little territorial with her style. Another girl in our group, who I'll admit has started to embrace fashion a little more than she used to, is now being accused of being a fashion thief by girl A.

Now I know that fashion is a very personal thing - your clothes form your identity and tell the world something about you. But if you choose to follow the latest trends, do you really have the right to claim loafers or a button-up shirt as your own, even if you might have bought it first?

I was a bit late to the Alan Partridge party (what with being about 8 when it first came out on tv), however I recently got in to the, and in fact spent what could have been a horrible hangover weekend watching Alan. I think this is my favourite clip.

"And another!"

Embarrassing Crush of the Week

Tom Pellereau, The Apprentice.





















I know it's wrong, but his geeky charm just appeals to me. He's also got a Michael Sheen thing going on, though that in itself is another embarrassing crush, I suppose (having said that, good enough for Rachel McAdams and Kate Beckinsale = good enough for me).

On an Apprentice sidenote, I was going to do a post last week on how pleased I was that Zoe had gone, what a bully she was etc. but then they revealed on You're Fired that she beat cancer twice as a teenager, and then I felt like the most horrible person in the world.

Things I hate

1. Skiing

It is not the activity so much, but more what comes with it. I was (un)lucky enough to go skiing for the first time this year (apparantly, the dry ski slope in Llangrannog doesn't count) in Switzerland as a friend of ours has a chalet there. Rather naively, I thought I'd take to it pretty well. WRONG!
I won't go into too much detail, but when you've been rescued by a snow plough a few hours into your first run, I suppose you should realise then that maybe skiing isn't for you.
Perhaps it's my own inadequacy that makes me dislike skiing (or more to the point, skiiers) and resent anyone who's better at it than me. However, I couldn't help but stifle a laugh when I went on a trip to Aosta (picturesque little town in the Italian mountains) and one of our group whined
"I can see that the town is beautiful, but for me this is so bittersweet because as a skiier, it's so sad to see that the snow has melted."












Me skiing. Or not.

TrueLad.com

Even though the word 'lad' makes me want to wretch (one place above 'banter' and below ending a sentence with 'BOOM.' on my list things that deserve a shot in the leg for), I did come across some funny things on truelad.com. The site is 40% dickheads, 40% sexist rubbish and 10% lies, but the remaining 10% pretty funny. This made me chuckle this morning.

"Someone's phone went off in an exam last week. Their ringtone was "Eye of the Tiger". Instead of trying to turn it off quickly, he stands up and punches the air in time with the song. He was then asked to leave. GottobedoneLAD"